A 36-year-old ‘farmer’ nearly gave the Aam Aadmi Party one less seat in its landslide victory in the Delhi Assembly polls, the results of which were declared on Tuesday.
Indian National Lok Dal candidate Bharat Singh, a former MLA, remained in the lead till mid-morning from the West Delhi Assembly seat of Najafgarh standing out as an anomaly in an otherwise clear domination of the AAP over the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Mr. Singh, one among the 183 candidates who contested from ‘other’ political parties that includes the BJP’s ally the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), finished with 54,043 votes only 1,555 less than the winning AAP candidate Kailash Gahlot.
The SAD candidate from Rajouri Garden, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, was the only other candidate to have scored votes above 40,000. The lowest a candidate polled was seven votes in Tri Nagar, which went to All India Minorities Front’s Bashiruddin.
Votes for the Shiv Sena that fielded 19 candidates ranged from 28 votes in Tri Nagar to 1,706 in Rajouri Garden. The Samras Samaj Party fielded 16 candidates with none of its candidates polling more than 600 votes and the Hindu Congress Party fielded 14 candidates.
While Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha candidate Sadachari Sai Baba Om Ji, who contested against Mr. Kejriwal in New Delhi, managed 373 votes in all, Ajit from the Gareeb Aadmi Party who also contested from here raked in 34 votes.
Similarly, Jagbir Singh who was among those who contested from the Krishna Nagar constituency where BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi contested managed to poll only 32 votes.
INLD’s Bharat Singh finished with 54,043 votes, only 1,555 less than the winning AAP candidate Kailash Gahlot
The lowest a candidate polled was seven votes in Tri Nagar, which went to All India Minorities Front’s Bashiruddin